The app has improved in recent years but still suffers too many paper-cuts - little niggles that if fixed, would make things significantly better. Another is the spinning “loading” delay when jumping between different podcasts. Or polluting the UX with “subscription-only” bonus episodes.

The loading delay is the most serious bug, IMO. When Apple tried to get "smart" about downloading vs streaming episodes*, the app's usability seriously degraded until I found the settings to ensure "always download". Apple was unclear on the concept of what made podcasts popular. * see next post